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IBM said it has closed its acquisition of The Weather Company’s business-to-business, mobile and cloud-based web properties (including weather.com and Weather Underground), The Weather Company brand, and WSI, its global business-to-business brand.
As previously announced, IBM is not buying Weather’s cable TV unit. The Weather Channel will continue to operate independently, but will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM under a long-term contract. Financial terms of the acquisition and the licensing agreement were not disclosed.
The Weather Company’s Cloud Data Platform will become the “backbone” for IBM’s Watson IoT Cloud platform.
IBM said The Weather Company will now be led by Cameron Clayton, The Weather Company’s’ former president, product and technology. The Weather Company has become part of IBM’s Data and Analytics Platform business unit.
David Kenny, former chairman and CEO of The Weather Company the once president of Akamai Technologies, will head up the IBM Watson platform business. Michael Rhodin, who launched the Watson business, will lead Watson Business Development, IBM said.
In tandem with the deal, IBM announced plans to expand weather.com into five new markets -- China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Japan, expecting to boost the site’s global user base by “hundreds of millions over the next three years.”
